SEO Best Practices to Follow: The Best SEO Guide

With millions of websites competing online for the same audience, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is considered a fundamental pillar for any modern digital marketing strategy. Businesses striving to boost their online presence are now on constant look out for the best SEO strategies to stand out above the cutthroat competition. In this article, we’ll be learning everything about SEO Best Practices To Follow, from understanding the basic concepts of SEO to the common mistakes that should be avoided if you want to reduce the risk of a high ranking on search engines and earn more traffic due to search results.

Understanding SEO Fundamentals

Prior to delving into SEO Best Practices To Follow, it is important to provide an overview into what SEO is. SEO is a comprehensive umbrella term for various activities and techniques in the area of search engine optimisation. SEO activities are employed to improve the way a website positions a web page within search engine results pages (SERPs) so as to secure organic (non-paid) traffic towards a website via optimised formats of content, structure and other technical elements.

Definition and Importance of SEO

Search engine optimisation, also known as SEO, is the process of making a website perform better in the organic (unpaid) search engine results. This will increase the visibility and a lot more of valuable traffic to that site. It covers on-page and off-page optimisation, technical SEO, content and much more. It’s so important to your business because every great business is looking for the best ways to attract the most organic traffic, which later on increases your conversion rates and as a result, making your revenue hit the roof.

Search Engine Algorithms

With algorithms that rank the order of the websites (called SERPS), which are these search engines that makes websites rank where they get the highest amount of clicks to that page? Google gives this information away. They are a business. They want people to understand how they rank pages so they can get more exposure. If you understand algorithms, then you’ll have a much higher chance of attempting to do effective search engine optimisation (SEO).

How Search Engines Work

Search engines use automated crawlers (a.k.a. spiders or bots) that index websites. They are looking for signals in the content, metadata, and other factors to generate a snapshot of the web. A user submits a keyword or phrase to a search engine, which then accesses its index of the web and identifies relevant pages to return as results. These are then ranked in response to the query.

SEO Best Practices to Follow

So, now you know exactly what SEO is… and what it definitely isn’t.
But let’s go a little further and discuss SEO Best Practices. There is the very important matter of Keyword research, now on-page SEO, off-page SEO and finally technical SEO to understand.

1. Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of searching for both the most relevant and highest traffic keywords to employ to maximise the amount of visitors to your content. Begin by writing down keywords related to your business and then use keyword research tools to find more ideas. Long-tail keywords (keywords with three or more words) might have less competition and can be a great place to find engaged searches.

2. Content Optimization

Good content is also an important factor in search engine optimisation because Google and other search engines are driven to find websites with good content. Accordingly, each piece of content needs to contain good keywords, have good metadata and headings, and the content needs to be divided and sub-divided using H1 and H2 headings. Keyword density is only important if you make it important. I generally aim for a keyword density of between 1 and 1.3 per cent but you can (in theory) have a keyword density of 20 per cent, if that helps your customers – though that will lead to penalization as it is known as keyword stuffing and is against search engine optimisation standards.

3. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is focused on optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher in the SERPs. When it comes to on-page SEO, you want to concentrate on areas that you have control over, such as title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, URL structure, internal linking, and broken link fixing. Make sure your title tags and meta descriptions are enticing with your target keywords included.

4. Off-Page SEO

All the activities controlling how visible your website is on the internet, but done away from your site, are your off-page SEO activities. The biggest of these is backlinks, done well. And you build them by writing guest blogs, getting social about your social media sites, and making sure anyone who can influence trends gets to know you and mention you. Don’t get spammy or get involved with sites that are placeholders for bad links – you will consciously lose points.

5. Technical SEO

Technical SEO relates to technical factors on your website, such as website speed, mobile readiness, XML sitemaps and robots.txt. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, loads fast, and has a clear XML sitemap for search engines to easily crawl and index your website.

Keyword Research Techniques

Keyword research is an important aspect of SEO Best Practices to Follow. We can say this with confidence because, in certain cases, our position in the web search result will depend on the keywords we use. Here are several effective ways to learn proper keywords.

1. Finding the Right Keywords

First, pick out the keywords and keyphrases that the people you want to reach are searching for. What do you do? Learn how to use a tool such as Google Keyword planner, Ahrefs or SEMrush to root out those keywords that have a strong search volume and low competition, and work out how this competition compares with other websites on these words and phrases. Other elements to consider here are the ‘intent behind the keyword’. Some keywords are more informational intentions, whereas search queries are more explicitly transactional or purchase intent.

2. Long-Tail vs. Short-Tail Keywords

These are also longer and more specific search terms that, although they still have a lower competition, have the potential to bring in more targeted traffic. Short-tail keywords, on the other hand, are shorter and less precise search terms with higher search or traffic volume, but they are also quite competitive. It’s best to adopt a well-curated mixed strategy of both long-tail and short-tail keywords for better SEO.

3. Utilizing Keyword Tools

You can use keyword research tools to glean keyword trends, search volume and competition. These can help you prompt new keyword ideas, understand which keywords your competitors are using, and track where your rankings sit by excerpting your competitors’ practitioners. Try Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs and Moz Keyword Explorer.

4. Analyzing Competitors’ Keywords

Knowing your competitors’ keywords can help you find gaps and leverage opportunities in your own keyword strategy. Simple analysis of what your competitors are targeting can be informative and reveal new keyword opportunities for your content to target in differentiated ways. Competitor keyword profiles can be explored using tools such as those from SEMrush and Ahrefs.

Content Optimization Strategies

Optimisation of content is a principal of SEO Best Practices to Follow. It helps search engines to understand the context of your content and to improve your ranking of search engines results’ pages (SERPs).

1. Creating Quality Content

Without quality content, SEO does not matter at all. Write informative, lively content. Write for your readership. Make it easy to read. Use a combination of text, images and videos. Create original content (do not copy other’s content).

2. Incorporating Keywords in Content

These keywords must be repeated in a natural way – as many as possible, throughout the text. In an ideal situation, keywords should be included in title, headers, meta descriptions and body content. However be careful not to overdo it, because search engines penalise pages. Ranking of a page can be improved by making sure your keyword density is about 1.3 per cent.

3. Using Metadata Properly

Metadata supplemental information that search engines use to better understand your content. Use keywords in your title tags, meta descriptions and image alt text. Write enticing meta descriptions so your site appears when people enter variations of your keywords.

4. Content Structuring

One, use heading tags, sub-headings, bullet points and lists to help structure the content so that it is clear to search engines and users; insert H2 and H3 tags when breaking up content into manageable chunks.

On-Page SEO Techniques

One of the major aspects of achieving this is on-page SEO – the practice of optimising individual web pages so that they rank higher within search engines. Let’s outline some of the core on-page SEO best practices.

1. Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Title tags are one of the first pieces of information shown in SERPs, so make sure your title tags are relevant, readable and include your targeted keywords. Meta descriptions give further information about the page, are used to persuade people to click on the page and should be relevant to the content on the page.

2. Header Tags

Header tags – H1, H2, H3, and so on – are design elements that help structure your content and show search engines how one piece of information relates to another. For instance, your blog header should be wrapped with the H1 tag, and it should contain the most important keyword for that page. Then you can wrap subheadings with the H2 and H3 tags.

3. URL Structure

URL structure needs to be optimised for SEO. Include keyword-enriched URLs that define what the page is about. Do not keep lengthy or ambiguous URLs as it will confuse not only the users but also search engine. Make sure to keep the URLs short, punchy and correlate with content.

4. Internal Linking

The nature of internal linking will help visitors find other relevant pages and improve their website experience, as well as show search engine crawlers the structure of your website. When internal links lead visitors to important and relevant content, people will be more satisfied with their experience on your site. Internal links could take the form of related articles, next articles or previous articles, and similar site links.

Off-Page SEO Techniques

Off-page SEO relates to any activity outside your website that you do in order to rank better in search engines. This might include building backlinks and any kind of marketing actions you might take outside your website.

1. Building Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites to your site, and they are a strong signal to search engines saying that your content is high-quality and trustworthy. Focus on earning high-quality backlinks from trusted sources. Guest blogging, outreach campaigns and partnering with influencers are all excellent ways to earn backlinks.

2. Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is writing articles for other websites or industry-related blogs. It’s a great way to enhance your brand relevancy, foster backlinks and reach out to your target audience. When guest blogging, keep in mind that your content should relate to the hosting site’s target and be of value to its audience.

3. Social Media Engagement

Social media is another huge contributor when it comes to off site SEO. Getting involved with your users online helps to bring clicks and traffic to your site. Whether you are posting content on Facebook, having useful conversations on Twitter or interactions on LinkedIn, share your content with the world and get involved with your followers. The possibilities are endless.

4. Influencer Marketing

Promoting your content or brands through influencer marketing refers to collaborating with influencers or industry leaders to amplify your content and boost your brand. You will need an influencer who has a large follower base since this would likely drive more traffic to your website, and in turn, attract new audience to your content.For example, if you are a fitness influencer, reaching out to the most popular celebrities in the fitness industry could attract more exposure to your content and could speed up the process of broadening your brand reputation.

Technical SEO Essentials

Technical SEO relates to the technical aspects of your website that influence rankings. If your website isn’t technically sound, SEO is going to be an uphill battle.

1. Website Speed and Performance

A site that loads fast gets priority on SEO, as search engines understandably prefer speed, and people will leave a slow site fast. Compress your images, minify your code, use a CDNs to improve load times!

2. Mobile Optimization

Make sure that you optimise your site for mobile, because Google is moving to mobile-first indexing. It’s a must! Optimise your website to be responsive to mobile devices. Conduct a site-test on mobile devices to make sure your website is working properly.

3. XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt

This is an XML sitemap, which is an XML file that gives information on all the pages included in your website. The idea is that, if you create an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines, they’ll use that information when they index your pages. An XML sitemap is a simple text file that lists URLs when indexed by search engines. The robots.txt file can also be edited to provide input on which pages of your site search engines are allowed to visit.

4. Fixing Broken Links

Broken links will hurt your SEO and they will make your users leave your site – ensure they do not find any. Check your site on a regular basis for broken links, and whenever you find one, fix it. Take advantage of tools such as Google Search Console to keep track of broken links and other issues that could be affecting your site’s performance.

The Role of Analytics in SEO

Analytics are essentially the numbers of SEO. It is within analytics you can identify how much your SEO work has helped, or if those tactics you thought were brilliant really are. With these numbers, you can base your decisions on having more reason instead of just subjective guesses.

1. Monitoring SEO Performance

Check your rankings on a weekly basis to make sure you’re on track. For example, Google Analytics and Google Search Console give you metrics such as your rate of organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate. By monitoring these metrics, you can detect what’s working and what’s not – and adjust accordingly.

2. Utilizing Google Analytics and Search Console

Google Analytics and Google Search Console are great tools for SEO tracking. Google Analytics reports tell you about how your website is used, and who is using it. Its data covers things like traffic streams, engagement, and page visits. Google Search Console analytics reveal how your site is being viewed by search engines, and tells you which pieces of content are indexed and optimised. Tracking and querying the data from these tools will help you notice trends, keyword ranking progress, and to keep tabs on how your site is performing.

3. Tracking Keyword Rankings

If you track your keyword rankings, you’ll get a sense of whether your SEO efforts are paying off or not Google offers you keywords tracking tools that enable you to check in periodically, so you’ll be able to see if your rankings for a particular term are moving up and down over time. This can let you know which keywords drive the most traffic, or which ones you still need to focus on.

4. Measuring Backlink Quality

Backlinks have always been crucial for SEO, but do you know if all your backlinks are high quality? Yes, it’s important to analyse your backlinks to your website and see what you can do with each of them. Make sure that they are helping your website, not hurting it in any way. In order to properly analyse them, you can run these on a software, such as Ahrefs or Moz. Obtain or try to recreate bad backlinks with good ones.

SEO Tools and Software

Different SEO tools and software can be used to aid you in implementing and managing your SEO, so it’s an area with a lot of options. Many of these tools can save you work, too, by giving you a better overview of how your site looks to your visitors.

1. Essential SEO Tools

SEO tools that you will get a lot of use out of as a beginner include keyword research tools, site auditing tools and backlink analysis tools. Free and paid versions of tools are available, with some popular ones being Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz. You can access all the important features if you get the paid (pro) versions. Spend some time on these tools to find which ones are best for you.

2. How to Use SEO Tools Effectively

SEO functions best when the user has a clear grasp of the instrument’s features, functions, and mechanics. Get to know your SEO tools and utilise them. Most of them have tutorials and guides to help you get the hang of it right away. Play around with some FREE SEO tools to test the waters. See what works for your set of needs.

3. SEO Automation Software

No aspect of SEO effort requires more repetition than those aspects that are taxing and time-consuming when performed by hand. One of my most treasured improvements to my SEO set-up over the years has been to automate the number-crunching. This frees me from the tedious task of running through elements on my site one by one. DeepCrawl and Screaming Frog come handy for performing an audit of my site, Goscrawl is excellent for checking titles and descriptions, and Rank Ranger is useful for automating keyword-tracking.

4. Comparing Different SEO Tools

You can see how the SEO tools differ from each other, and decide which tools are right for your business. While choosing an SEO tool, remember to shortlist a few options and compare them. Make up a list of important factors like pricing, features, useability and then evaluate each tool. Read reviews of the selected tools from the professionals, who are already working in the SEO industry.

Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid

If you are going to use SEO Best Practices to Follow, it is also important to avoid making SEO mistakes. When you make SEO mistakes, your website will be pushed down in rankings by search engines. Your overall SEO will be hurt.

1. Keyword Stuffing

Don’t let your content be stuffed full of keywords. Keyword stuffing is a shady non-strategy where you try to elevate your search rankings by putting your terms in as many pages as possible. Besides almost always resulting in search engine penalties, you should really avoid keyword stuffing your web pages. As a good rule of thumb, don’t let your keyword density go over approximately 1.3 per cent. Instead, get good at writing valuable content.

2. Duplicate Content

In the same way, if you have duplicate content, that is actively sharing the same text or information on multiple pages inside your website or other peoples’ websites, search engines would also penalize you for that. Ultimately, search results aren’t valuable if a searcher lands on your website only to find the exact same content on another website. Make sure that you have original information.

3. Ignoring Mobile Users

Ignore mobile users now and those without a mobile-friendly website can be left to the ‘Google sandbox’ where your website does not appear in search rankings at all. As recently as early 2018, Google began a process of ‘mobile-first indexing’ where mobile user experience becomes the central component in deciding your website’s SEO. Make sure your website is responsive and works well on mobile platforms. Find a friend with an iPhone, a Samsung, and a Blackberry and test your site.

4. Neglecting Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the backbone of your site, its ability to perform as it should and be found from search engines. Having technical problems like long load times, link issues or other issues makes it harder for web browsers, search engines, and your website visitors to have a good experience. Do yourself a favour and spend the time to check on your technical SEO. This includes running regular site audits to see what technical is causing more complex issues.

The Future of SEO

The world of SEO always on the move. That’s why it’s important to stay on top of what’s trending and what’s new in SEO, and exploring new technologies.

1. Evolving Search Engine Algorithms

Search engine algorithms tend to keep changing, so try to keep up with what you’re doing so that you can rank well in search results. You should also check out some reputable SEO blogs and sites and get yourself acquainted and updated with what goes on with your domain.

2. Impact of AI and Machine Learning on SEO

If ever there was a signal that AI and machine learning are changing search engine algorithms, it’s that the technology allows search engines to more effectively understand user intent and deliver more appropriate results – are you adapting your SEO game plan as AI and machine learning evolve?

3. The Importance of Voice Search

As the use of virtual assistant like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant spreads, voice search will also rise. Use natural language and develop content with answers to common queries to make your content voice-search friendly. Consequently, optimization for voice search can help your website to rank on desired voice search results.

4. Adapting to Emerging SEO Trends

Being prepared to update or adapt your SEO to upcoming SEO trends is important for staying ahead of the competition. Understanding what’s new in the SEO industry (eg, things like Core Web Vitals, core web experiences metrics, structured data), and experimenting to identify new opportunities to develop new SEO strategies is just as important as keeping up with the ‘latest and greatest’.

FAQs About SEO Best Practices to Follow

How Often Should I Update My Website Content?

Your SEO ranking depends on constantly changing your website content. Regularly posting new content will drive new traffic towards your site – and keep you above the line with the search engines. You should aim to update this content every few months or after major changes to your industry or products have occurred.

Can Social Media Impact SEO Rankings?

Yes, but indirectly. Social media is still not a direct ranking factor, although a lot more traffic will drive to your site or you will build a stronger brand (which will be a great trust signal). Overall SEO success can be influenced by a healthy social presence.

Is SEO Better Than Paid Advertising?

SEO and paid advertisment have distinct functions. Organic traffic from SEO takes long time to improve for search engine ranking but keeps its benefits and costs in years to come. Paid advertisment can bring result quickly but costs continuously. Trying both SEO and paid advertismdemnt is the most effective way to balance this PAIRS.

How Do I Get Started with SEO?

That said, if you want to start off with SEO, the best place to begin is to learn the basics and do some keyword research. Optimise your content and make sure your website is technically sound. Supplement your SEO efforts with SEOmoz’s marketing tools and software. If you’ve never used SEO before, you might want to hire and SEO consultant or agency to help you get started and guide you along, because it can be a bit overwhelming at first.

What Are the Best SEO Tools for Beginners?

There are plenty of SEO tools that are great for beginners, with intuitive UIs and capable features. Google Analytics is excellent for tracking how your website is performing, while its sister Google Search Console is fantastic for keeping up to date with how Google sees your site. Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, and others have powerful keyword research and site auditing features. Do some research and find the best tools for your situation.

Should I Focus on Local SEO or Global SEO?

Should you go for local or global Seo. Well, it all depends. If you have a local company in rural Vermont, you can optimise around that with local SEO, then try to get on a firs t page for various keywords like ‘Vermont plumber ’. like your in Vermont. Local S.E.O optimization should be on the top of your list. If you’re a company which has a wider audience, then it makes sense to ge for global Seo by just not optimizing around local keywords, But trying to get onto some fairly widespread keywords, like ‘digital marketing’ and things like that, ranking on a global scale, and trying to global area digital marketing. but optimizing requires an entirely different skill set.

Conclusion

What is the SEO Best Practices to Follow? SEO is constantly evolving. Today’s best practice can become obsolete in a matter of hours. It can seem impenetrable and feel like it’s something only amenable to big players with lots of money and experience. But it’s simply not the case. If you follow the process in this guide, you can rocket your site or your client’s up the rankings. Make sure you keep abreast of what is happening, don’t make any silly mistakes, and always stay on top of things to make the most of your SEO efforts. You’ll be much happier and safer for it. It’s time to wake up! And it is down to you… 1 Overview 2 Crawlability 3 Indexation 4 Relevancy 5 Local SEO 6 Technical 7 Offpage SEO 8 Onpage SEO 9 Content